Adapted from a Light Novel

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Hey all I’m back with another new series for this week’s Anime Sunday. It’s my Tensura Episode 01 Impressions!

Plot: This first episode is pretty focused on the Mikami’s life in Modern Day Japan, and while it does get us to the first big plot point it’s taking it’s time. So those wanting a ton of action will probably be disappointed. I wasn’t one of those people however as I’m really happy they’re taking a slow pace with the series and doing the story justice. I will admit I’ve read the Light Novels this is adapted from, and seeing it take such a slow pace when compared to the frenetic pace other adaptations have done in the past is really good.

Characters: Mikami is a pretty standard dude, honestly he’s kind of boring. Thankfully the rest of the story will make up for that, and Veldora was awesome to see in the Anime. Veldora was a very fun character. We don’t get to meet much of the cast though, but since it’s just the first episode that’s okay.

Art: The art is pretty awesome, and while it’s not ufotable quality Studio 8-Bit did a pretty darn good job.

Music: The music is okay, but it’s not that intense in this first episode so who knows how the rest of the series will handle music.

Overall: An excellent adaptation, with good pacing and excellent artwork.

For those who like: Isekai, Tensei, Fantasy, Magic, Drama, Action, Adventure,Awesome Plot, Great Cast of Characters, Outstanding Artwork, Good Music.

This week for Anime Sunday I’m covering a new series from the Fall 2018 season. It’s my Seishun Buta Yarou Episode 01 Impressions!

Plot: The plot of this first episode is very intriguing and it sets the stage for the series really well. I will say that this is an adaptation of a Light Novel Series, but I haven’t read it. I don’t tend to enjoy the romantic comedy series, but hopefully this avoids most of the faults of those Anime. This first episode shows that it could go very well, but that could end up being just a short reprieve from another poorly done romantic comedy.

Characters: Mai and Sakuta are our main characters and they are both very interesting. Mai isn’t a terrible person and is actually incredibly likable from the get go, if a bit surprising in her choice of garb. Sakuta on the other hand is also fairly forthright in his interests with Mai, and it’s a refreshing change of pace from other romantic comedies that always have awkward love polygons for no purpose beyond making drama.

Art: The art is okay, but nothing spectacular. It’s not egregiously bad, but it’s not amazing either.

Music: I enjoyed the musical score, and the opening theme. Not much more to be said about that.

Overall: This could prove to be a delightful series if this first episode is indicative of the rest of the series.

Isekai Maou to Shoukan Dorei Majutsu: This is an Isekai series, I’ve heard it’s a fairly funny series with a ridiculously OP main character. Whether it’s any good remains to be seen, but it’s a pretty okay Light Novel series.

Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria: This is another Isekai series, but this time the main character isn’t some OP bad ass and actually has to work his ass off and isn’t given any help from pretty much anyone upon arriving in a new world. I’m unsure on this series as I haven’t read it’s original Light Novels, but given the synopsis and the fact that the main character isn’t some walking nuke I’m interested.

Happy Sugar Life: This is a Horror series. If you want to know how screwed up humans can be, you might want to watch this. Me I’m just watching it because it’s more psychological horror rather than a traditional horror series. I might regret it, but I’ll be giving it a shot.

Honorable Mentions:

Fate/Extra Last Encore: The second season of Last Encore, this will continue the weird adaptation of a game I really need to finish playing.

One Room Season Two: I enjoyed these short form Anime last year, and I’ve been a fan of the main artist for this series. So I’ll be giving this a quick watch.

This week for Anime Sunday I’m not covering a new series. It’s all about the New Life+ Controversy!

Huh?: So for those unaware there was in the past month a huge controversy that exploded regarding a Light Novel series that was getting an Anime adaptation. Than someone found some pretty inflammatory Twitter posts by the author and everything went pear shaped. First the Voice Actors quit the Anime adaptation, than the Anime itself got cancelled. Following that the original publisher pulled the series from Print and the US Publisher did the same.

Seriously?: Yeah, it really happened and personally I find it a shame that it happened and now a bunch of people are out of jobs after putting in work on it.

But they were really insensitive remarks, and so was the main character in the book!: Well I will agree that the Author was an asshole, and probably still is one, but I will dispute the fact that the main character was racist.

First the main character doesn’t have any memories, only knowledge of his past life. The fact that he killed thousands of people as part of a war is something he’s completely unaware of from the first 60 or so pages of the first volume of the Light Novel that I’ve read. The fact he did that is slightly unbelievable, but then again it’s a war, people die; get over it. The fact that some American people got upset at that and call foul when America has a sitting president with known racist Tweets, Multiple Sexual Assault Allegations and tons of other sleazy shit is a bunch of bull to me. Personally I am fully aware of how nationalistic Chinese citizens can be, it’s featured prominently in much of their own literature and authors make similar remarks all the freaking time. Some of the authors of series that have even gotten true Anime have also made rather insensitive remarks on the Chinese equivalents of Twitter. So this occurring is a bit confusing to me I’m fully aware of how much bad blood there is between Korea, China and Japan, but people losing their jobs over remarks made by another person years in the past is a bit much to me. If you’re going to be upset, than be upset BEFORE people start working on something.

This week for Anime Sunday I’m covering some series I think fell flat this season. It’s my Losers of Winter 2018!

Death March: I really wanted to like this series, but it was just a bit too flat. Maybe it’s because of being adapted from the Light Novel which I haven’t read instead of the original Web Novel. There are supposedly differences between the two, and while I don’t mind all of that, I just found that Satou wasn’t as enjoyable to watch as he was to read. Maybe if I binge watch all of it later on I’ll enjoy it more.

Märchen Mädchen: Filled with a bit too much fanservice for me, this was another series I really wanted to like, but the fanservice element was a bit too much for me. That and I had way too many things to do these past few months meant that I ended up dropping the series after the first couple episodes.

Darling in the FranXX: I wanted to enjoy this series, I really did. But it was just too angsty for my tastes. The overt sexual themes didn’t help either.

One thing I want to note is that all of these had rather decent artwork, with Death March being the least noteworthy. So most of my issues come from the plot itself rather than any other issues.

This week for Anime Sunday I’m covering the first episode in a series’s second season. It’s my Overlord II Episode 01 Impressions!

Plot Synopsis: Having overcome Shalltear in an epic magic duel Ainz returns to being an adventurer under the disguise of Momon. Howevever on his way back to Nazerick things in the world are starting to take notice of his coming to this strange new world…

Plot: This is mostly a recap/foundation episode. The plot is okay, but not really what fans of the series are after. If you were expecting diabolical schemes and tons of chaotic neutral actions, you’re going to be disappointed.

Characters: We get a few new faces in this episode, but mostly like I said it’s a setup of upcoming events.

Art: The art is great, but that’s to be expected being animated by Madhouse.

Music: It’s good, but not absolutely amazing either.

Overall: A good start to a sequel season, whether it can capture the feel of the first season in coming episodes remains to be seen.

This week for Anime Sunday I’m back with another series from Winter 2018. It’s my Märchen Episode 01 Impressions!

Plot Synopsis: Kagimura Hazuki is a 15-year-old high school student who is painfully shy and socially inept; and as a result of this, she has no friends or even a love interest. She is very imaginative and a dedicated fan of fantasy fiction, traits which were ingrained by her mother, who died when Hazuki was still little; and whenever she is upset, she immediately finds herself a story book to immerse herself in. One day after school, Hazuki comes across a cloaked figure and decides to follow her to an unused library…

Plot: The plot is pretty decent, although there are some detractions to the story with some fanservice that occurs. That being said I did find this series particularly interesting prior to this season’s start due to the fact that the author had died before finishing the original Light Novel series. Whether they can make a functional Anime out of an adaptation of an incomplete series remains to be seen.

Characters: Hazuki is a female lead who is fairly stereotypical, although I did find her trait of escaping into a good book particularly relatable. The rest of the cast is okay, although like I said above there is more than a bit of fanservicey parts that detract from the plot.

Art: The art is excellent with character designs done by the novel’s illustrator Kantoku, who I’ve mentioned before as being one of my favored artists in the Japanese scene. Feel free to look up their work, although fair warning that much of it is incredibly NSFW.

Music: The music is okay, but it’s nothing too memorable either.

Overall: A decent series, but the fanservice that happens really detracts from the actual story.